(Three days before the campers arrive!)

A calm, cool evening at Whittington Adventure Camp after a long day of meetings and corralling a certain, determined little red head. A herd of over twenty deer wandered through the cabins this evening. Earlier today I pointed out the lonesome antelope picking his way through the shot gun range. Miah started motioning for the animal to come to her with both hands and making kissing noises, and I had to hold her to stop her from running to the antelope. She has yet to understand the difference between wildlife and domesticated animals. A little later on she was gifting her honorary “Poppys” with half crushed red ants. She doesn’t seem to understand that while people enjoy being given flowers, we’re a little appalled by the gifts of half-dead animals.

I came back to the cabin for a little quiet time and a bag of popcorn. Mark is still talking to our Hunter Education/Archery instructor who enthralled us with busted barrels and antique guns. One barrel has fifteen lead bullets squashed and melted into each other in a slightly enlarged barrel. The shooter couldn’t figure out after the first or second shot that something was horribly wrong! Other mistakes had busted the breech or muzzle of the barrel. We also saw old pistols the French used to shoot plates and glasses in bars, a pin fire pistol developed to circumvent the patent on center fire, a firing pin that was permanently lodged inside a cartridge (check your firearm before cleaning it!), and a bolt that had melted to the end of a cartridge (which I was told was only possible at around 1500 degrees).

Miah has figured out that by wearing ear protection she might be able to join people at the firing line. Although this has encouraged her to wear ear protection, she still can’t join us there. I do have her hauling her own diapers, hat, and sunscreen around in her backpack—too cute. She’s also carrying her moose around as her buddy. Although she has warmed quickly to all the older instructors, whom are all “Poppy” to her, she is still wary of the counselors.

I’ll be going to bed, it appears, to the sound of war stories. What an amazing generation we’ll be missing soon.